Democrats Harden Budget Positions

By

Janet Hook and

Carol E. Lee

Updated Nov. 27, 2012 12:40 p.m. ET

The White House and congressional Democrats hardened their budget positions on Tuesday and signaled they are prepared for partisan jockeying before any agreement to block impending spending cuts and tax increases can be reached with Republicans.

Sen. Dick Durbin (D., Ill.), a rare liberal who has supported changes in Medicare and other entitlements as part of a broad budget deal, made clear he wouldn't back them under a short-term agreement to avoid the fiscal cliff.

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White House officials suggested in a closed-door meeting with supporters that talks wouldn't heat up for about a week. In the meeting, President
Barack Obama
said he considered the fiscal-cliff debate a defining moment of his presidency.

"The next four weeks could define the next four years," Mr. Obama told a small group of Democrats after joining their meeting in the Roosevelt Room with his top aides, according to a participant.

Republicans criticized what they saw as a lack of progress and girded for a public-relations initiative of their own to galvanize small-business owners in support of their fiscal-cliff proposals, in particular their opposition to raising the top income-tax rates.

ENLARGE

Obama speaks to the press earlier this month on fiscal-cliff issues.
Associated Press

"If the president wants a solution to the challenges of the moment, the people he needs to be talking to are the members of his own party, so he can convince them of the need to act,'' said Senate Minority Leader
Mitch McConnell
(R., Ky.).

In the wake of an initial White House budget meeting, members of both parties seemed to agree that any fiscal-cliff deal would be linked to a broader budget agreement involving both tax increases and cuts in entitlement programs such as Medicare and Medicaid.

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See some scenarios for how different groups of people may be affected by the tax changes that will take place if the fiscal cliff isn't resolved by the Jan. 1., 2013, deadline.

Republicans have since refused to budge on a demand that tax rates remain unchanged, while Democrats insist that upper rates must rise. Republicans have called for big changes in entitlement programs; most Democrats have refused to offer any until Republicans give more ground on taxes.

In his discussion with Democratic supporters Tuesday, Mr. Obama showed no inclination to give ground. He repeated his threat to veto legislation that doesn't make upper-income Americans pay more in taxes and promised he wouldn't accept "a bad deal."

White House communications director Dan Pfeiffer told the group that the White House should know in about seven to 10 days how much the Republicans will be willing to compromise on taxes, according to attendees. Senior White House adviser David Plouffe warned the Democrats of a big fight ahead which required the party to stick together, attendees said.

Mr. Durbin, the Senate majority whip and a close Obama ally, was one of the few senior Democratic liberals willing to entertain big changes in Medicare. In a speech Tuesday at Center for American Progress, a liberal think tank, he said Democrats "should be willing to talk about ways to ensure the long-term viability of Medicare and Medicaid."

At the same time, he said such changes should be dealt with next year, rather than in a hurried manner during the current lame-duck session of Congress.

White House press secretary Jay Carney said he hadn't seen Mr. Durbin's remarks but said Mr. Obama wants a deal that includes changes to entitlements.

Complicating the already complex budget talks, Mr. Durbin said the year-end budget agreement will have to include an increase in the country's statutory borrowing limit to avoid another fight when the federal debt ceiling is reached, likely early next year. "The president isn't going to sign off on an agreement that doesn't provide some certainty on the debt ceiling," he said.

A GOP House leadership aide said Republicans would insist on greater concessions from Democrats, in addition to any fiscal-cliff agreement, to include the debt ceiling in any deal.

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